Extract annotations from document Leave feedback
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Documents often carry annotations: comments, sticky notes and other markup that reviewers add on top of the content. GroupDocs.Parser reads them with the get_annotations method and returns a list of AnnotationItem objects.
| Call | Returns |
|---|---|
get_annotations() |
The annotations of the whole document |
get_annotations(page_index) |
The annotations of one page (or slide); page indexes start at 0 |
Both return None if the document format does not support annotations, and an empty list if the document has none. Annotations are read from PDF, Word processing (DOC, DOCX, RTF) and PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX) documents; check parser.features.annotations when the format is not known in advance.
- GroupDocs.Parser for Python via .NET 26.10 or later installed
- A document with comments or notes
Here are the steps to extract annotations from a document:
- Instantiate the
Parserobject for the initial document; - Call the
get_annotationsmethod; - Iterate through the list and read each annotation’s
value.
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
# Create an instance of Parser class
with Parser("./reviewed.pdf") as parser:
# Extract annotations from the whole document
annotations = parser.get_annotations()
if annotations is None:
print("Annotation extraction isn't supported for this format")
else:
# Print the text of each annotation
for annotation in annotations:
print(annotation.value)
Check the 2,400 kg against last season's sell-through before we sign.
Release date works for the Q4 cash forecast.
Ask Northwind for the green coffee index they will use.
Dock 2 is reserved for these two mornings.
Expected behavior: Prints the text of every annotation in the document, one per line: a reviewer’s note and the text of a link annotation for the sample.
Each AnnotationItem also tells you who left the annotation, when, and on which page:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
value |
str |
The annotation’s text |
annotation_type |
str |
The annotation type, for example Text for a note or Link for a link |
page_index |
int |
Zero-based index of the page (or slide) the annotation is on |
timestamp |
datetime or None |
When the annotation was created or last modified, as stored in the document (no time zone) |
author_name |
str |
The author’s name; empty when the document does not record one |
author_initials |
str or None |
The author’s initials, when the document records them |
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
with Parser("./reviewed.pdf") as parser:
for annotation in parser.get_annotations() or []:
print("Type:", annotation.annotation_type)
print("Author:", annotation.author_name or "-")
print("Initials:", annotation.author_initials or "-")
print("Created/modified:", annotation.timestamp)
print("Page:", annotation.page_index + 1)
print("Content:", annotation.value)
print()
Type: Text
Author: Lena Park
Initials: -
Created/modified: 2026-01-12 13:00:00
Page: 1
Content: Check the 2,400 kg against last season's sell-through before we sign.
Type: Highlight
Author: Amara Osei
Initials: -
[TRUNCATED]
Expected behavior: For the sample, prints:
Type: Text
Author: Tomas Reyes
Initials: -
Created/modified: 2026-03-02 11:00:00
Page: 1
Content: Approve the hero crop before the print run.
Type: Link
Author: -
Initials: -
Created/modified: 2026-03-02 11:00:00
Page: 1
Content: Aurora Visuals portfolio
Not every format can carry annotations. Check parser.features.annotations first, or test the result of get_annotations for None:
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
for path in ("./reviewed.pdf", "./sample.xlsx"):
with Parser(path) as parser:
# Check if the format supports annotations before extracting them
if not parser.features.annotations:
print("%s: annotation extraction isn't supported for this format" % path)
else:
annotations = parser.get_annotations()
print("%s: found %d annotations" % (path, len(annotations)))
./reviewed.pdf: found 4 annotations
./sample.xlsx: annotation extraction isn't supported for this format
Expected behavior: Prints the number of annotations in the PDF, and annotation extraction isn't supported for this format for the spreadsheet.
A review queue, an index or an AI agent usually wants annotations as data. Convert each item to a dictionary:
import json
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
with Parser("./reviewed.pdf") as parser:
records = [
{
"page": annotation.page_index + 1,
"type": annotation.annotation_type,
"author": annotation.author_name,
"timestamp": annotation.timestamp.isoformat() if annotation.timestamp else None,
"text": annotation.value,
}
for annotation in parser.get_annotations() or []
]
print(json.dumps(records, indent=2))
[
{
"page": 1,
"type": "Text",
"author": "Lena Park",
"timestamp": "2026-01-12T13:00:00",
"text": "Check the 2,400 kg against last season's sell-through before we sign."
},
{
"page": 1,
[TRUNCATED]
Expected behavior: Prints a JSON array with one object per annotation.
The command line gives the same data without code: groupdocs-parser annotations reviewed.pdf --json.
- Page indexes are zero-based; add 1 when you show a page number to a person.
get_annotations()returns an empty list, notNone, for a document without annotations.- To get the annotations’ text inside the extracted text instead, see Extract text with annotations.
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